STR Reports US Hotel Pipeline for May 2011

According to the May 2011 STR/McGraw Hill Construction Dodge Pipeline Report, the total active U.S. hotel development pipeline comprises 2,965 projects totaling 310,762 rooms.

This represents a 3.6% decrease in the number of rooms in the total active pipeline compared to May 2010.

The total active pipeline data includes projects in the In Construction, Final Planning and Planning stages, but does not include projects in the Pre-Planning stage.

"Rooms under construction remain a scant 1% of the existing hotel room inventory (nearly 50,000 rooms under construction vs. 4.88 million existing rooms)," said Brad Garner, COO at STR. "Only the South and Middle Atlantic regions are noteworthy, together accounting for more 40% of rooms in construction. The Pre-Planning phase remains light as well, with a 2.4% increase over the existing room base through May. The Mountain and South Atlantic regions contributed the most rooms in this stage, each adding more than 20% of rooms to the total number of rooms in the highly speculative Pre-Planning phase of the supply pipeline through May."

Among the nine geographical regions of the U.S., the West South Central region reported a 54.5% decrease in rooms in construction with 8,247, reporting the largest decrease among the regions.

Two other regions experienced decreases in the number of rooms in the In Construction phase of more than 30%: the Pacific region (-33.8% with 3,508 rooms under construction) and the New England region (-32.9% with 912 rooms).

The New England region ended the month with the largest decrease in rooms in the total active pipeline, falling 23.4% with 9,276 rooms, followed by the Mountain region (-20.3% with 26,156 rooms in the total active pipeline) and the South Atlantic region (-17.3% with 74,965 rooms).

No U.S. region showed positive growth in the pipeline.

See recent travel news from: Travel News Asia, STR, Pipeline, May 2011